Listeria monocytogenes isolated from vegetable salads sold at supermarkets in Santiago, Chile: prevalence and strain characterization.

Between 2000 and 2005, 717 samples of three types of salads were analysed for Listeria monocytogenes in Santiago, Chile in order to provide information to Chilean health authorities on the presence of the pathogen in vegetable salad samples and to ascertain the risk of these products for consumers. L. monocytogenes isolates were found in 88 out of 347 (25.

Occurrence of Listeria monocytogenes in food in Chile.

Out of 2145 food samples analysed 77 were found contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes in Santiago, Chile. Samples were: 603 ice-cream (3.5% contaminated), 256 soft cheese (0.

Clinical manifestations of nutritional copper deficiency in infants and children.

A series of reports in the 1960s highlighted nutritional copper deficiencies in infants and children recovering from malnutrition in Peru; since that time, a cascade of additional cases in premature infants, in patients receiving total parenteral nutrition, and in those receiving special diets or unmodified cow milk have been reported. The identification by Danks that Menkes syndrome, a genetically determined defect in copper absorption and utilization, is responsible for the observed clinical manifestations provided further insight into the physiopathologic effects of copper deficiency. New information on the metabolism and physiologic role of copper, plus the identification of additional copper metalloenzymes and improvement in how to determine copper status, has fueled interpretation and speculation on how and why the classic signs of copper deficiency occur, as well as on the possible effects of mild deficiencies.

Evolution of drug resistance in Salmonella panama isolates in Chile.

In a search for Salmonella isolates in the environment in Chile in 1975, drug-susceptible strains of Salmonella panama were recovered for the first time from river water and vegetables in the vicinity of Santiago. Two to 3 years later, antibiotic-resistant S. panama began to appear in a variety of sources (meat, animals, vegetables, etc.

Molecular analysis of environmental and human isolates of Salmonella typhi.

Molecular characterization of a total of 54 isolates of Salmonella typhi from Santiago, Chile, was performed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) after digestion of chromosomal DNA with three restriction endonucleases: XbaI (5'-TCTAGA-3'), AvrII (5'-CCTAGG-3'), and SpeI (5'-ACTAGT-3'). Thirteen of the 54 isolates were obtained from environmental sources (sewage and river water), and the rest were isolates from clinical cases of typhoid fever. Considerable genetic diversity was detected among the human isolates obtained in 1994, as evidenced by the presence of 14 to 19 different PFGE patterns among 20 human isolates, with F (coefficient of similarity) values ranging from 0.